New Life
by Rie H
Summary: Sakura's marriage is failing.  Her husband stays out all night with out regaurd for her or their unborn child.  Will her former sensei be able to teach her how to love again?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Just in case you all, didn't already know, I don't own Naruto.

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Cleanliness is Next to Kami-ness

Sakura stood awkwardly in the doorway of her ex-sensei's apartment. She couldn't remember a time when it was so, so clean. The place was immaculate. All the magazines that had been previously strewn about the apartment were neatly arranged on the well dusted coffee table, and you could see the floor, and the dining table, and the kitchen was clean. She couldn't help but gawk as Kakashi struggled to find the scroll she wanted to borrow.

Sakura took a couple steps into the apartment and continued to look around. Her eyes fell to the book case. The Top shelves contained Kakashi's whole collection of Icha Icha Paradies, and the rest of the shelves had books of maps, reverence materials, and scrolls. Eyeing the one she wanted she meekly got his attention, "Eh, Kakashi Sensei…"

"Hm? I can't find anything in this pigsty." He smiled as he turned to face her. "You were saying something?"

"It's right there." She answered pointing to it on the shelf.

"So it is!" The silver haired Jounichi said scratching the back of his head. He walked over to it and picked it up. "I can't find any thing since she cleaned up in here." He said handing his student the scroll.

Sakura eyed him suspiciously. Who was this she who came and cleaned his

apartment? "Thank you, sensei."

"Eh, Sakura, you don't have to call me that anymore. Kakashi is fine." He smiled through his mask.

Sakura unsure of what to do next took one last frantic look about the room before speaking again, "Thank you again, sen-Kakashi. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Sakura." He said as she turned around and left the apartment.

As she was leaving something caught her eye on the table by the door. It was a spherical jade pendant on a thin gold chain. Sakura had seen it before, she just couldn't place when. Could Kakashi be seeing someone she knew?

Later that night while she was alone in her apartment she tried to focus on her borrowed scroll, but she found that she couldn't no matter what she did. All she could focus on was where she had seen the pendant before. She also felt the slightest twinges of jealousy at the back of her mind, she was a married woman, drooling over her former sensei was not going to help her strained marriage.

She sighed as she looked at the clock. 11:30 and her husband was nowhere around. He was probably up to no good wasting their money on prostitutes, and booze, or buying his mistress expensive perfumes.

She pushed back her chair from the table, "Does he even care?" She said looking at her slightly swollen belly.

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Author's Note: First fanfiction, hope you all like it so far. I'm not exactly sure who Sakura should be married to, so I am open to suggestions. It's a bit short too, the next chapters will be longer though. Thank you for your feedback! 


	2. Chapter 2

What a Woman Deserves

"Shouldn't you be at work?" A slurred voice inquired mockingly, jabbing the sleeping Sakura in the neck, "Or do you think you can just spend the whole day sleeping?"

Sakura winced at his touch. Why did he like to see her hurt so much? Why did he like to cause her pain? What was it she had done to deserve this kind of treatment? She was tired of it all, so tired.

She stood up angrily her fists clenched until her knuckles turned white and pressed firmly on the dark wood of the table she had fallen asleep at. "Sasuke, why don't you be a man?" She said through clenched teeth.

"Bitch!" He said grabbing her roughly on the arm and jerking her around to face him. Sakura's eyes filled with fear, "I'm more of a man than you deserve!"

"Sa-Sasuke, don't you care about your child?" The reference to the life growing inside her only made him angrier. He raised his hand to her, striking the side of her face. The force caused her to spit out blood, and she could feel her face start to swell.

His uncaring hands threw her to the side, and she was barely able to catch herself on the table. Sasuke went to the fridge and pulled another beer out of the fridge before slamming the door. She slowly lowered herself to the floor holding her breath so as not to cry in front of him.

Luckily she didn't have to wait very long. He immediately went to their bedroom and slammed the door shut. Sakura crawled outside to the courtyard. She hugged her knees under the large oak tree and rocked herself as she started to cry. "I-I c-can't do this anymore!" She silently cried out to the gods, pleading them to tell her what she had done to deserve this kind of treatment. Surely there had to be something.

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Haruno-Uchiha Sakura was a very skilled medic-nin. She was a hard worker and was quickly going up in the ranks at the clinic. Yet, as of late everything took a dive. She was constantly late, and couldn't focus on her work, which was dangerous, the job of a medic-nin could never be taken lightly.

The head team of Special Medic Team 9 couldn't understand it. Something wasn't right, and today was the final straw. She, Maito Emi, would get to the bottom of it if it was the last thing she did. She couldn't have one of her medics causing any harm, especially one as talented as Sakura.

Emi's gut instincts told her to be on her guard, there was no telling what would happen with an Uchiha involved. She opened the gate of the Uchiha household and stepped inside. Her eyes fell on Sakura who was rocking herself like a child crying. She ran to her younger subordinate there was something definitely not right.

When Sakura looked up Emi saw the fear, the dried blood, the black eye. She understood all too clearly. Sakura was being abused. That pathetic, no good, down right lousy guy. She had seen this thing before at the clinic, but there wasn't much she could do in those cases. This time was different. No one hit her medics and got away with it. No one!

"You're trespassing, woman." She heard a voice from the porch. "Leave! This doesn't concern you!"

Maito Emi stood up to her full height, which wasn't very tall. She wasn't much taller than a child, but she was a Maito, she wasn't about to be afraid of some no good husband. "Bull shit it isn't, you drunken coward!" She said eyeing the half empty beer in his hand.

He smirked cockily as he stepped off the porch, "Big words from such a small woman. Do you have the abilities to back them up?" He threw his beer to the side, and it shattered into hundreds of smaller pieces.

"Emi-sempai…" Sakura grabbed her wrist, "Don't."

"In the words of my dear brother, 'A nice guy's gotta do what a nice guy's gotta do.'" She said smiling at her medic, "I won't hurt him much, Sakura-chan." She pulled away from Sakura and placed herself into a defensive fighting stance.

The odds were in her favor today. Any other day she would not have tried to go up against Uchiha Sasuke alone, but today he was drunk, he had been up all night, and it was obvious to her that there was no way he was in any condition to fight. Drunken Taijutsu took a very special kind of person, and it was clear that Sasuke was not.

He lunged at her practically blindly and left himself completely open to her attack. She would end this scuffle in one move.

"Black Lotus Punch!" She cried out as she dodged to the left and punched him in the face as he went by her. The force of the blow left him instantly unconscious, and he landed on a heap in front of Sakura's feet.

"Sa-Sa-Sasuke!" Sakura's eyes went wide, "Emi-chan… Is he dead?!"

"No, Sakura, I didn't kill him. He's not worth killing. I want to see to it that he is punished."

"No, please, I'm the one to blame, it's my fault, I deserve to be treated this way."

How could she be saying that? She deserved to have a husband who cheated on her and beat her around? "Sakura, in all the years I have known you, in all the years you have been employed under me in the clinic, you have been faithful and loyal to him in all aspects. Women were created to be loved and cherished by men, not to be used by them." She placed her hands on Sakura's shoulders. "Sakura, I'm going to ask you to do something very brave. I'm going to ask you to leave Sasuke, if you don't do it for yourself, I want you to do it for your child."

Sakura looked up at the older woman. She was right she had to leave, she had to do it for her child.

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All right, that's the end of chapter two, I hope you all enjoyed it! 


	3. Chapter 3

Emi took Sakura to the safest place she knew of. Her house. Sakura looked around in awe. From the outside it looked just like the traditional family houses that most wealthy families owned for generations, but on the inside it was richly decorated in a modern style.

Sakura had only seen homes like this in magazines, she had no idea that the Maito family was so wealthy. Emi and Gai never let that on for a second. They were both a bit quirky to be sure, but they never let on that they were probably one of the wealthiest families in Kohona. Sakura couldn't help but gawk.

Emi laughed as she brought the tea in and saw Sakura looking around like a child in a toy store. "Our brothers insisted on redecorating a few years back. They said, 'If we're to retire in Kohona we're going to live like we do in the big cities.'" She poured Sakura a cup and then herself one.

"Brothers?" Sakura asked staring at a modern painting that to her didn't look a thing like art, just a black square painted on a white canvas, but what did she know about art anyways.

"Yes. There are six others, all sets of twins. Gai and I are the youngest set of twins, and I am the only girl. You can imagine how difficult it was for me growing up. Fortunately I have my mother's eyes." She said smiling as she took a sip of her tea.

Sakura also took a sip of hers noting how traditional the set was. "Where are they all now?"

"Ah, well, they're all in big cities teaching Lotus Style Taijutsu, but to them Kohona is home. They'll all be back here one day though, and then it will be a big Maito reunion."

"Oh," Sakura said. She had been an only child growing up, and it had always been so lonely for her most of the time. She hoped that her baby would have brothers and sisters to play with one day.

"MAMA!" A little voice yelled and the sounds of little feet running through the house interrupted Sakura's depressing thoughts.

A little boy maybe three years old came running into the dining room. He was surprisingly cute. He didn't have his mother's straight black hair, instead it was spiked and had a streak of silver running through it. He did however have his mother's eyes. He leapt into her lap and held up a piece of calligraphy for her to see, "It says my name!"

Sakura had no idea Emi had a child. They were so happy together. Sakura hoped that she and her child would be as happy as they were.

"Why it does! O-bi-to!" She said pointing to each of the characters.

"I hope I'm not intruding, Emi-chan, I just thought I would pick him up from daycare for you." Came a voice that grew louder as it came down the hall.

Sakura knew that voice. Everything became clear. Everything made sense. She felt her heart sink as Kakashi himself came through the door. Of course, he was with Emi, he had a child with her, they were the same age, and had even gone on missions together as ANBU. He frequently visited her at the hospital to.

Sakura realized that she had seen the jade necklace before around Emi's neck. Emi was the one who cleaned his house.

"Oh, hello, Sakura-chan!" He said waving, but as he looked closer he realized something was wrong. His smile instantly vanished.

"AH! Kakashi!" Emi said getting up quickly and grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the kitchen.

Sakura hung her head in shame, now Kakashi knew too. That was when she felt a tug on her sleeve. She looked down and saw the little boy's eyes shining up at her.

"Nee-chan, why are your eyes sad?" He asked so sweetly. "Mama's eyes look like that sometimes, when she is thinking about grandma and grandpa, are you thinking about your mama and papa too?"

"No, I'm thinking of someone else." She said trying to smile a little.

"My name is Obito, not O-bi-to, see, this paper says it." He said showing it to her.

"I'm Sakura."

Little Obito smiled at her, and gave her a hug. "You should smile more, Sakura nee-chan, you're pretty when you smile."

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It's short again I know, but it seemed the obvious place to leave off the chapter, be happy I didn't end it where I originally wanted it to though. It would have been super short if I had. I guess I sloved the "Who is Kakashi with?" mystery for you all too, huh? What happens next, what happens next. Hehe. Only time will tell! 


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura played with her yakisoba uncomfortably. They were all so happy. The perfect family really. If only her baby would be as lucky as Obito. He had both of his parents and they both loved him very much.

As long as Sakura had known him, Kakashi was a complete bachelor, and now he was a family man. He took such good care of Obito, and obviously cared deeply for Emi. Sakura sighed as she wished that she had married someone like Kakashi, even if he was perverted from time to time, instead of some boy she had been pining over her whole life, who turned out to be someone completely different than the man she had thought he was.

After dinner Sakura and Emi cleaned the dishes in the small kitchen of Kakashi's apartment. "Is there something on your mind, Sakura? You seemed troubled at dinner."

"Oh, it's nothing." Sakura looked into the living room and saw Kakashi reading a children's book to Obito and sighed again.

"Ah, it's about Sasuke then, isn't it?" Emi said leaning back against the counter.

Sakura placed her hands on the edge of the sink, and looked at her reflection in the dirty water. The swelling in her face had gone down, but for the most part she still looked a bit rough. "Yes. I wish my child was so lucky to have a father like Kakashi."

"Yes, I suppose Obito is quite lucky for that." Emi said as she looked at her son and his father.

"How long have you two been together?" Sakura asked.

"Well, we never were." Emi said blushing.

"Then Obito…?" Sakura said looking at her in disbelief. Never were? What did that mean?

"Yes, Obito is our child, but we've never been romantically involved. Let's continue this conversation outside."

The two women went out to the balcony that overlooked Kohona, and they sat in the plastic chairs that were at one time a rich royal blue from what Sakura could remember, but had faded into a much lighter shade from constant exposure to the sun.

Emi sat back and looked out over the city, "Kakashi and I have been friends for a very long time, since we were little children. There was a strong bond of friendship between us from the very moment we met, but it was destined to be just that a friendship. We've been together on countless missions, and have shared the pain of seeing our other childhood friends pass away. we've used each other as support to get us through the rough times."

Emi stood up and walked over to the edge of the balcony. She stood up on a stool that seemed to be put there just for her, because it enabled her to lean her fore arms on the ledge and look out over the city. "Three years ago in March we were celebrating after a very intense mission that left us both emotionally and physically drained. We were both drunk, and weren't thinking clearly."

Emi smiled at this point and hung her head. "I was insisting that I had come up with some new form of birth control. It was something like a paper seal placed on the body that had a special jutsu that would keep a woman from conceiving a child. It was a brilliant idea at the time, but Kakashi insisted that it wouldn't work. I got angry and insisted that if he didn't believe me, that we try it."

"I won't go into all the details, but the next morning when I woke up I realized something had gone wrong. Somewhere in our drunken love making the seal had been torn. I quickly dressed an pretended like nothing was wrong, but my suspicions were proven correct over the next two months when I missed my period twice. I didn't need any tests to tell me that I was with child."

"As soon as I got off of work that day I rushed over here. I was frightened and confused. I had to talk to Kakashi. I waited here for almost five hours before he showed up. I don't think that I have ever talked so much in one night in my life."

"Eventually he and I came to the conclusion that getting married just because we were having a baby was a bad idea, and the best thing for the child was to raise him knowing the truth."

Sakura looked at Emi in disbelief. Emi had always seemed so straight-laced before, but now there was a whole other side to her that was opening up. The side that made mistakes, and knew how to deal with them gracefully. She was someone to be admired, no wonder Tsunade-sama thought so highly of her. "So Obito knows that you and Kakashi aren't in love?"

"Yes, he knows that his mama and papa are just friends, but he also knows that there are reasons for that, and that he is loved and cherished above all things by both of his parents." Emi turned around and looked at Sakura, "Getting married or staying married for the wrong reasons can hurt a child, Sakura. I hope you know this. I want you to know that if you need us, Kakashi and myself are here for you anytime."

Sakura nodded, and for the first time in a long time she felt the faint flutterings of happiness. There were people in the world who cared for her and her child. Even if it meant choosing a lifestyle that wasn't traditional, like the way Kakashi and Emi raised Obito, she was fine with it, so long as she and her baby were happy.

The sun had set over Kohona when Kakashi came to the back porch, "I'm sorry to interupt, but Obito has fallen asleep."

Emi hopped down from the stool, "I'm sorry I didn't realize it was so late. I'll take him home now." She stopped in front of Sakura and patted her on the knee, "We thought it would be best if you stayed here for the night. If my brother had been home, you could have stayed with us, but seeing as it's just me and Obito, we thought it would be safer for you to stay with Kakashi. I hope you don't mind."

Sakura blushed slightly and shook her head, "No, it's no problem… It makes sense really."

* * *

As Emi walked home carrying her precious son, she felt the sensation of being watched. Her hunter had no ordinary eyes either. She was being watched by a pair of Sharingan. She dropped to one knew holding Obito close to her as she pulled a firecracker from her pocket. Balancing her sleeping son on her knee she pulled the cord.

The firecracker soared to the sky with a tail of green sparks, and when it reached its peak exploded in a brilliant flash of red. This was the distress call of the ANBU when they needed assistance.

Within seconds two ANBU were by her side.

One wearing a fox style mask spoke, "Emi-sama, we saw your distress signal. Is there something wrong?"

She looked the blonde haired shinobi dead in the eyes, "I may have started a war."

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I'm going on vacation soon, but hopefully I'll have the story finished by then, if not, you'll all have to wait until I get home. Oh, and Naruto just made his first appearance in the story if you couldn't tell. XP Enjoy! 


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